The quick or short Language Questions Thread (not grammar)

I’m having a tough time trying to translate
王政府の方針
王政→monarchy, imperial rule
府→prefecture?? Jisho provides other meaning but I don’t understand the english explanation
方針→policy, plan (of action)
The policy or plan of action/principles of the monarchical prefecture?

If you enter long kanji compounds into Jisho it sometimes is so kind as to pick them apart correctly for you: 王政府 - Jisho.org (doesn’t work 100% though).
I’d translate it as “royal government” I guess.

3 Likes

I did this on an app that should work as Jisho but didn’t give me any result in particular, need to use the website next time!

The breakdown is a feature of the website and not the underlying dictionary data. Different apps / websites can give different results here. E.g. on my phone I often use an app called “Japanese” which also does quite some breakdowns, but somehow Jisho still comes up with better results sometimes.

5 Likes

image
I have this one, have been using it since day one and found really good but haven’t tried anything else, maybe I should… I will go more often with the website tho, after your feedback

image

Is it this one?

Yes, the red one is the one I usually use on my phone (it works offline as well which is a plus for me). But on my computer it’s always the jisho.org website.

2 Likes

I don’t have a PC so it’s quite more comfortable to just open the app, but if Jisho online helps breaking out words combinations better in that way, I’ll go for it :ok_hand:

1 Like

I’d say if in doubt, just double-check wherever you can :slight_smile:

The dubious attempt of the Japanese app

so yeah, in this case it failed badly :rofl:

1 Like

Imagine shogunate (幕府), but the leader is a king/queen and not a shogun.

As a general rule, I would just fire up a browser of your choice and use Jisho.org. It’s maybe not super comfortable, but it’s a cross-platform approach and get the job done.

6 Likes

That’s the same result I got and was quite confused with it too :ok_man:

Let me google shogunate :joy:

I know, jisho is definitely the best chance, you guys convinced me to go for it from now on!

2 Likes

I’m disappointed. I thought you know the full history of the Sengoku period already :joy: .

2 Likes

I’ve been reading this manga and I can’t imagine what “role” the guy calling her has. Is he a creditor who wants money from her? Is she trying to lend money from her? Then why is he talking to her like that? Why is she so polite to him? But he seems to be the one calling. Is it someone her husband knows?

The only context I have is that her husband spends a lot of money on his car (and presumably is in a lot of debt), this is the first scene for her.


Edit: I think I just got it. He is a creditor who lent her husband money and is trying to get his money back, she says she has nothing to do with it… and so on.

6 Likes

What manga is it? i like how clean the lines are.

イキガミ. This is the fourth volume. I really like the premise (To make people realize the value of their lives, every person gets a nano capsule injected in elementary school. And one in 1000 people dies from their capsule about 12 years later. The manga is about the last 24 hours of life of these people who die „for the good of the nation“)

3 Likes

Yep, you got it – this is the classic manga trope of the shady probably-yakuza guy who’s bought the husband’s bad debts off the original more reputable creditors at pennies on the dollar and is now demanding repayment with menaces. The implied threat that they’ll force her into prostitution if she can’t pay is also a cliche.

I think this trope is a relic of the late 70s/early 80s when consumer credit first became common in Japan but consumer protection laws hadn’t caught up, and a lot of the shady practices of debt collectors weren’t technically illegal – eg there was no limit on how often or when a debt collector could phone the house so they could make the debtor’s life an absolute misery by phoning at 3am, and so on. The bottom end of the debt-collection market must have had a lot of sharks like the guy on the phone in it.

10 Likes

Oh! I thought of Ikigami after seeing the summary and the first page. :smiley:

She’s polite because a woman isn’t usually gonna cuss out someone on the phone that’s already being aggressive, plus she must know that it’s a possibility, and she’s kind of in shock.

Even if it was a scam or something, you just tell them what she did and hang up.

Really like that manga… :eyes:

3 Likes

「バスキア本家の血筋は日本に渡ったが、分家は枝分かれし、 フロア家を含む幾つかの血筋として続いている。その中でもフロアは海を渡ったベネリ=バスキアの弟、オズワルトの血脈なので主筋に近い。」I need a bit help to make sure I am understanding the bolded part correctly. Is it saying “Among these, the Floa line is closest because of Oswalt’s lineage, the younger brother of Benelli Basquiat who crossed the ocean”? The way it is phrased is kind of confusing me so I’m not sure if I’m understanding it right or not.

2 Likes

The way I interpret that:

Among these, the Floa line is closest to the lord’s lineage (? not sure about the wording here), because it is the line of Oswald, brother of Benelli Basquiat, who crossed the ocean [referring to Benelli, not to Oswald, I think, but it could be either - presumably related to the family line extending to Japan].

It takes a bit of puzzling, yes. I think what you missed is the な in なので is a copula, and fills essentially the same role as だ. So you can divide this into several parts:

フロアは[…]主筋に近い

with the inner part being

海を渡ったベネリ=バスキアの弟、オズワルトの血脈なので

Which is just ので tacked onto 海を渡ったベネリ=バスキアの弟、オズワルトの血脈だ, retaining フロア as the topic/subject. You can then further simplify that into [フロアは]オズワルトの血脈だ, with 海を渡ったベネリ=バスキアの弟 just being a description/qualification for オズワルト.

Does that clear things up a bit?

Basically the inner clause is just the reason the Floa line is closest to the “lord” (I think that might be the head of the main branch?), that reason being it originates in who I presume is someone from the main branch.

4 Likes

The only thing I would say is that 主筋に近い doesn’t necessarily implies it’s “the closest”, just that it’s very close. I would rather translate it as “one of the closest”

But other than that I find your translation very good.

And since the topic was raised:

I think the standard way to parse would be that Benelli is the one who crossed the ocean. Japanese grammar however is ambiguous and does allow for Oswald being the one who crossed the ocean, given you make proper pauses and emphasis while you talk.

That being said, on my understanding writing this sentence while meaning that Oswald is the one who crossed the ocean is considered poor writing, because it’s extremely misleading and hard to parse.
If your text is from a proper source, I would bet my money on Benelli.

4 Likes

Thank you for breaking it down like that, it does make a lot more sense thinking of it that way!

I probably worded it awkwardly in my translation but Benelli is the one who crossed the ocean since it gets confirmed later on in the story (it was mainly everything else in that sentence I was unsure on :sweat_smile: ). And thank you for clarifying on the 主筋に近い line!

5 Likes